My Jupiter in
Scorpio is on the Sabian Symbol, An X-ray. Over the years, I’ve come to
attribute a lot of affinities in my life to this image, among them, my
obsession with humorous dancing skeletons, Day of the Dead style. In fact, I have
a thing for skeletons, especially seeing my own on x-rays—how literal. (One of
my friends has this symbol on her Sun. Her career was in radiology!) Once I
bought a blank greeting card with a hilarious drawing. It was a skeleton
sitting at his or her computer with lots of cobwebs all around. On the screen
it says, The Great American Novel. I still haven’t stopped smiling over it, as
I’m sure I’ll still be striving to write great novels from beyond the grave.
Lastly, my love of mystery and the mysteries of life represent the deep
examination to the core of things that x-rays allow us to do—to make out things
you cannot see with the naked eye.

Recently, I had a healing experience that reckoned back to
my x-ray Sabian symbol in a way I had not expected. I felt compelled to share
it and hope that it’ll give you pause to look at your Sabians in a new way.

Old Symbol, New
Application. I’ve been having major back issues. I am not a wimp when it
comes to pain. In the course of my life, I’ve lived with a lot of it, both physical
and psychological. Case in point, when I had a hysterectomy in the 1990s, a
rampant case of endometriosis was discovered as a secondary diagnosis in the
process of dogging the primary problem. Half my medical team was comprised of women,
and they could not believe I could stand, much less walk around, with that
level of the disease. Most women would be doubled over in pain.

And so it has been with my back and me. I had not been able
to move forward in ways that are essential for my husband and me to get on with
the rest of our lives. I had little energy (very uncharacteristic of me), craved
excessive amounts of sleep, and just could not seem to start my engine. Granted,
I’m coming off a year that challenged me to the brink of my resources, but
recovery has been slower than a Pluto Return and felt like one.

I addressed the psychological side of the issue, but even though
I’d been waking up in the middle of the night from back pain, it took me some
time to realize that I had to take new actions on the side of the physical. A
friend referred me to a new chiropractor who works with a method that requires
a lot of pre-evaluation, including x-rays. Not only did the x-rays confirm the
status of arthritis I already knew I had. They uncovered a previously unknown
condition in my mid-back that explained why I was having a hard time getting
out of chairs, bending over, etc.

Pain ultimately brought me to the x-rays, a long time after
I should have arrived already. The new chiropractic adjustments have been a
booming success from the gate. The first one was so intense; I almost saw
stars! The release had so much impact; it took me a couple of days to adjust to
the neurological shift.

Also as a result of the x-rays I’d have never had,
but for a new doctor requiring them, I’ve been referred to a pain clinic in my
medical group that offers many other services, traditional and non-traditional.
All this good fortune from x-rays. Holy Jupiter!

A New Look at Your
Sabians. I have long loved the Sabian symbols, but I have been just as
mystified by their somewhat convoluted language. Thanks to Sabian experts like Lynda Hill, Blaine Bovee and several
other pioneers in Sabian interpretation, I have had authorities to consult when I’m
trying to decipher what a particular symbol might mean for me. However, my
recent x-ray experience pointed me in another direction as a starting point,
one that’s more simplified.

Just like tarot cards, the Sabians are an oracle. In How I
Read Tarot Cards and Oracular
Spectacular, I talk about leading with intuition and how you and/or a consultant
respond to the pure symbol. Leave the book and any classical meanings till
last, because your visceral and “off the top” response often will give you the
most personalized information. I never thought of applying this to the Sabian
symbols, but the x-ray experience was a big aha
about how it works with this oracle system, too. I’m not saying to abandon what
the experts have to say, but because of the complex imagery—and in order to
personalize it—it often helps to start simply. You know, how they tell you when
taking a multiple choice test, go with your first response. It’s often right.
And speaking of tests, any visual oracle is like a Rorschach ink blot test.
What you see is what’s going on.

To give another for-instance, my husband has an exact
Moon/Saturn conjunction in Leo on the Sabian, A Chemistry Teacher. With his
multiple health conditions, he takes a boatload of medicine. His humorous
response to this fact of life is the old DuPont slogan, “Better living through
chemistry.” For weal or woe, Tim has taught others around him, including me,
the benefits and downside of drugs. Oddly (or maybe not so oddly with this
Sabian on his Moon), he has managed to benefit more than not from the drugs he
takes, even given the large load. Go figure. Saturn points to the traditional
or institutional, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that “establishment
medicine” has done him well for the most part. Makes him feel better (Moon).

Take a new look at your Sabian symbols. Create a document
with the degree of each of your planets and sensitive points (angles, nodes,
Part of Fortune or Spirit, Vertex or whatever ones are meaningful to you).
Remember to round up unless the degree is exactly 00, e.g. 12 Pisces 00 is 12 Pisces.
(Twelve Pisces 01 is 13 Pisces.) Write just the text of the symbol next to the
degrees. Keep this Sabian snapshot of your birth chart and learn the “pictures”
each symbol suggests. Notice how they play in your life.

And if you’re looking for what brings love (Venus), vitality
(Sun) or fortune (Jupiter)—or any other specific outcome, get to know the
symbol on its planetary representative. This simple observance may surprise you
as much as it did me.

Interview with The Radical Virgo

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Joyce Mason has Sun in the last degree of Virgo, three planets in Libra, Taurus Rising and a Capricorn Moon. She's a "PUNC," or a person with a prominence of the outer planets Pluto, Uranus, Neptune--add bridging and healing Chiron. (See her Outerplanetary People series for more on PUNCs.) Joyce is often mistaken for an Aquarius/ Sagittarius blend. Even if you don’t speak astrology, that makes sense on some symbolic level because they both end in “ius.” She believes that I and Us are one in the same—and celebrates the human spirit in which we’re all joined.

First and foremost a writer, Joyce was a consulting astrologer, tarot reader, dreamworker, and flower essence practitioner for 25 years. Her astrological specialties are the sign of Virgo and the centaur planet, Chiron. She writes on these and many other topics. Read her complete bio and astrology articles on her Writer Joyce Mason website.

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